Method, system and article of manufacture for bookmarking voicemail messages

ABSTRACT

A voicemail system includes a voicemail bookmarking procedure that permits users to bookmark voicemail messages during message playback. Upon receiving a bookmark request from a user, the procedure generates a bookmark pointer defining a starting point for subsequent playback of the message. The bookmark pointer can be based, in part, on a timing offset value entered by the user while making the bookmark request. The timing offset value defines a user-selected playback starting point that occurs before the message time at which the bookmark request was made. The value of the timing offset can be user selected.

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention generally relates to audio recording devices, andin particular, to voicemail systems.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Voicemail systems allow telephone callers to leave recorded messages forcalled parties when the called parties are unavailable. Most voicemailsystems record messages if the called party's phone line is either inuse or does not answer. In either case, the voicemail system answers thephone call and records the message. Typically, the message is digitizedand stored on a computer hard disk for later playback by the calledparty.

To play recorded messages, a mailbox owner calls the voicemail systemand accesses stored voice messages using a sequence of touchtone orvoice commands. In response to these commands, the voicemail system canperform various functions with respect to message playback. For example,a mailbox owner can fast forward, rewind, delete or skip a messageduring playback. In some voicemail systems, during a message playback,the listener can fast forward or rewind either to the end of the messageor a specific amount of time. Using these voicemail systems to play backspecific middle portions of messages, it is frequently the case thatlisteners must repeatedly enter fast-forward commands to get the systemsto skip ahead to the desired places in the messages.

Although the playback functions of currently-available voicemail systemsare adequate in many situations, there is room for improvement. Forinstance, some users may find it inconvenient and time consuming toselect specific portions of messages for playback using conventionalfast forward and rewind functions available with some voicemail systems.

Accordingly, there is a need for an improved voicemail system thatpermits users to conveniently select portions of stored messages forplayback.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a flow chart of a method of setting a voicemail bookmark inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a telecommunication system in accordancewith another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an exemplary data structureassociated with a voice mailbox provided by the voicemail system of FIG.2.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating the operation of the voicemailsystem shown in FIG. 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENT(S)

It is an advantage of the present invention to provide a voicemailsystem that permits users to bookmark messages during message playback.Bookmarks can be set by entering appropriate touch-tone or voicecommands. A bookmark defines a starting point within the message atwhich subsequent playbacks of the message can begin. The ability tobookmark messages significantly improves the convenience of playing backspecific portions of stored voicemail messages.

Turning now to the drawings, and in particular to FIG. 1, there isillustrated a flow chart 20 illustrating a method of setting a voicemailbookmark in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Instep 22, a user calls into a voicemail system. After connecting to thevoicemail system, the user enters information conventionally associatedwith accessing a voicemail box such as a user ID and/or password.Provided that there are voicemail messages stored for the user, the userrequests message playback (step 24). During playback of the message, theuser can enter a command to set a voicemail bookmark (step 26). Thecommand can be entered using one or more touch-tone digits or voicecommands at the user's telephone. The voicemail system responds to thiscommand by setting a bookmark pointer corresponding to the message beingplayed back.

According to one aspect of the invention, one of the digits entered canspecify a timing offset that causes the playback starting point to beset at a specified period of time before the point in the message atwhich the bookmark request is made. This permits a “warm-up” period tobe added to the bookmarked voicemail message.

In step 28, the bookmark pointer is stored by the voicemail system sothat the user can subsequently access the message at the place indicatedby the bookmark. The bookmark pointer can specify a computer memorylocation associated with a file containing the content of the storedvoicemail message. In addition, the bookmark pointer can be based, inpart, on the timing offset entered by the user.

In step 30, a voice message indicator generated by the voicemail systemis updated to indicate that the bookmarked message is no longer a newmessage, and has been bookmarked by the user. The voicemail system canbe configured to cause the message indicator to be displayed at theuser's terminal unit using a standard protocol and display interface.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a telecommunication system 60 in accordancewith another embodiment of the present invention. The telecommunicationsystem 60 includes a plurality of terminal units 64, a telecommunicationswitch 66, and a voicemail system 68. The terminal units 64 can be anysuitable end-user device, such as a telephone, cellular phone, or thelike, for permitting voice communication over a commercially-availabletelecommunications network 62. The switch 66 can be any suitablecommercially-available telecommunication switch, located at a privatebranch exchange (PBX) or central office, for allowing the terminal units64 to access the voicemail services of the voicemail system 68.

The voicemail system 68 can be a voicemail server communicating with theswitch 66 over a standard interface. The voicemail system 68 includes aprocessor 70, voicemail database (DB) 72, a memory 73, and interfaceport 76, a call answering device/dual-tone of multi frequency (DTMF)interface 78, a voice playback subsystem 80, a voice recorder 82, and aspeech recognition subsystem 84. A memory 73 can store a user interfaceprogram 74 that is executable by the processor 70. The user interfaceprogram 74 includes a bookmarking procedure 86 that permits thevoicemail system 68 to provide the voicemail bookmarking feature.

The voicemail system 68 can be implemented using a Compact Service Node,available from Lucent Technologies, Inc., configured and programmed toperform the functions disclosed herein. The switch 66 can be an advancedintelligent network (AIN) compatible switch, such as the 5ESS switch,also available from Lucent Technologies, Inc.

FIG. 3 illustrates a data structure 100 of an exemplary voice mailboxstored in the voicemail DB 72. Each voice mailbox in the database 72 hasassociated with it a user ID 102. Associated with each user ID 102, isone or more message IDs 104 for identifying voicemail messages stored inthe DB 72 for the user. Also associated with each user ID 102 is one ormore bookmark IDs 106 for identifying voicemail bookmarks associatedwith the owner of the voicemail box.

For each message ID 104, the DB 72 stores an associated voice messagerecord 108. The voice message record 108 can contain a sender ID 110identifying the caller leaving the message, a time stamp 112 indicatingthe time at which the message was recorded and one or more system flags114 for configuring system parameters and functions relating to themessage. The message record 108 also includes the message content 116,which can include the recorded voice message digitized into a formatsuitable for storage in the DB 72 and for playback by the voice playbacksubsystem 80. The message content 116 can be compressed and/or encryptedusing standard speech processing algorithms.

The bookmark ID 106 has associated with it a bookmark record 118containing a message ID 120 and a bookmark pointer 122. The message ID120 identifies the bookmarked message. The bookmark pointer 122 can be aspecific memory location indicating a playback starting point in themessage content 116 at which the stored message is played back when theuser subsequently selects the bookmark playback feature.

FIG. 4 is a flow chart 150 illustrating the operation of the voicemailsystem 68. In step 151, the voicemail system 68 generates an audio userselection menu for a user that has called in. The menu can be generatedby the user interface program 74, executing on the processor 70 togenerate a synthesized interactive voice response interface using thevoice playback subsystem 80. The menu can provide selectionsconventionally associated with voicemail systems, as well as selectionsrelated to voicemail bookmarking, such as play back or deletion ofbookmarked voicemail messages.

In step 158, a user selects the message playback option from the menu.This causes the voicemail system to begin the playback of storedmessages. During message playback, the user can enter a command thatstarts the bookmark set subroutine 152. In this subroutine, the system68 receives a bookmark request from the user (step 160). The bookmarkrequest can be a predefined sequence of one or more touch-tone entries.Alternatively, the bookmark request can be a voiced command by the userand processed by the speech recognition subsystem 84. The bookmarkrequest causes the voicemail system 68 to record a memory addressidentifying the current location in the stored voice message beingplayed back.

The bookmark request can include a timing offset value that defines awarm up period immediately preceding the point in time of the messageplayback at which the bookmark is requested. The timing offset causesthe bookmarked message to be played back starting from the beginning ofthe warm up period. The timing offset can be entered as a touch-tonesignal defining a period in seconds. For example, immediately afterentering the touch-tone command for the bookmark request, a user couldpush the digit “7” to indicate a timing offset of seven seconds, so thatupon subsequent playback of the bookmarked message, the playback willbegin seven seconds before the point at which the bookmark requestoccurred in the message. Likewise, other digits could be pushed to enterother timing offset values, e.g., “1” for a one second offset, “2” for atwo second offset, and so on.

In step 162, a memory address corresponding to the timing offset valueis computed by the voicemail system 68. This can be accomplished bydetermining the number of bytes required to represent a unit time ofrecorded voice. The bytes per second value can then be multiplied by thetiming offset value entered by the user to convert the user-enteredoffset value to a corresponding memory address offset value. Thisaddress offset value can then be combined with the memory addresscorresponding to the request to generate the bookmark pointer.

The bookmark pointer is then stored in the bookmark record (step 164).In step 166, a user message indicator generated by the voicemail system68 is updated to indicate that the bookmarked message is no longer a newmessage. The message indicator can be a visual indication, such as text,displayable on a user terminal unit.

Other bookmark-related subroutines, specifically the bookmark delete andplayback subroutines 154-156, can be initiated by the user through themenu. Concerning the delete subroutine 154, if upon presenting the usermenu, the voicemail system 68 receives a request to delete a storedvoice message or bookmark (step 168), the delete bookmark subroutine 154is initiated. The delete request can be entered by a user using atouch-tone or a voice command, and can specify one or more bookmarks ormessages to be deleted. Upon receiving the delete message command, anybookmarks corresponding to the deleted message are likewise deleted(step 170) from the DB 72. Similarly, upon receiving a delete bookmarkcommand, the corresponding bookmark is deleted.

The bookmarked-message playback subroutine 156 allows the voicemailsystem 68 to play back bookmarked voicemail messages stored in the DB72. In step 172, the voicemail system 68 receives a bookmark playbackrequest. The bookmark playback request can be either a touch-tone orvoice command entered by the user to select a previously bookmarkedmessage for playback. The request can specify a particular bookmark ID.Upon receiving the bookmark playback request, the voicemail system 68retrieves the bookmarked message from the voicemail DB 72 and plays backthe message starting from the position indicated by the bookmarkpointer. To playback the stored message, the message content is providedto the voice playback subsystem 80, which generates an audiorepresentation of the messages to the user terminal.

While specific embodiments of the present invention have been shown anddescribed, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that thedisclosed invention may be modified in numerous ways and may assume manyembodiments other than those specifically set out and described above.Accordingly, the scope of the invention is indicated in the appendedclaims, and all changes that come within the meaning and range ofequivalents are intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed is:
 1. A telecommunication system, comprising: a switch;and a service node in communication with the switch, the service nodecomprising: a processor for executing software programs; a memory,operatively coupled to the processor; a user interface program, storedin the memory and executable by the processor, for setting a bookmarkpointer associated with a voicemail message in response to a bookmarkrequest received during playback of the voicemail message; and a voiceplayback subsystem, operatively coupled to the processor, for playingback the voicemail message to a user at a specified period of timebefore a point in the voicemail message at which the bookmark requestwas received without receiving a rewind command from the user during thevoicemail message playback; and wherein the bookmark request includes atiming offset value.
 2. The telecommunication system of claim 1, whereinthe service node further comprises: a voicemail database for storing thevoicemail message.
 3. The telecommunication system of claim 2, whereinthe user interface program stores in the voicemail database a bookmarkrecord comprising a message identifier and the bookmark pointer.
 4. Thetelecommunication system of claim 1, wherein the user interface programincludes a subroutine for permitting a user to enter a timing offsetassociated with the bookmark request.
 5. The telecommunication system ofclaim 1, wherein the service node further comprises: a voice recorder,operatively coupled to the processor, for recording an incoming voicemessage in a predetermined format for storage in a voicemail database.6. The telecommunication system of claim 1, wherein the service nodefurther comprises: a speech recognizer, operatively coupled to theprocessor, for responding to voice commands received by the voicemailsystem.
 7. The telecommunication system of claim 1, wherein the servicenode further comprises: a call answering device, operatively coupled tothe processor, for automatically answering incoming telephone calls tothe voicemail system.
 8. A computer-usable medium storing a computerprogram product, comprising: means for receiving a bookmark requestduring playback of a voicemail message; means for setting a bookmarkpointer associated with the voicemail message in response to thebookmark request; means for storing the bookmark pointer; and means forplaying back the voicemail message starting at a specified period oftime before a point in the voicemail message at which the bookmarkrequest was made without receiving a rewind command from the user duringthe voicemail message playback by the means for playing back; andwherein the bookmark request includes a timing offset value.
 9. Thecomputer-usable medium of claim 8, further comprising: means forreceiving a request to delete one of a stored voicemail message and avoicemail bookmark; and means for deleting the voicemail bookmark inresponse to the request.
 10. The computer-usable medium of claim 8,further comprising: means for updating a voicemail message indicator inresponse to receiving the bookmark request.
 11. The computer-usablemedium of claim 8, wherein the computer-usable medium is part of aservice node.
 12. A method for bookmarking a voicemail message,comprising: (a) playing back a voicemail message stored in a voicemaildatabase; (b) receiving a bookmark request during the voicemail messageplayback; (c) receiving a request for playback of the voicemail messagefrom a user; and (d) playing back the voicemail message starting at aspecified period of time before a point in the voicemail message atwhich the bookmark request was made without receiving a rewind commandfrom the user during the voicemail message playback of (d); and whereinthe bookmark request includes a timing offset value.
 13. The method ofclaim 12, further comprising: updating a voicemail message indicator inresponse to the bookmark request.
 14. The method of claim 12, furthercomprising: setting a bookmark pointer associated with the voicemailmessage in response to the bookmark request; and storing the bookmarkpointer; wherein the timing offset value defines the specified period oftime immediately preceding a playback starting point defined by thebookmark pointer.
 15. The method of claim 14, further comprising:determining a memory location within the stored voicemail message basedon the timing offset value and the playback starting point.
 16. Themethod of claim 12, further comprising: setting a bookmark pointerassociated with the voicemail message in response to the bookmarkrequest; and storing the bookmark pointer.
 17. The method of claim 12,wherein the acts recited in claim 1 are performed by a service node. 18.A system, comprising: a telecommunications switch for processing callsby subscriber units; a service node comprising: a voicemail server,operatively coupled to the telecommunications switch, including a userinterface program for configuring the voicemail server to set a bookmarkpointer associated with a stored voicemail message in response to avoicemail bookmark request from at least one of the subscriber units;and a voice playback subsystem for playing back the voicemail message toa user at a specified period of time before a point in the voicemailmessage at which the bookmark request was received without receiving arewind command from the user during the voicemail message playback; andwherein the bookmark request includes a timing offset value.